Building Birdhouses with the Summer Stewards – George shares his Expertise!

Although most undergraduate students head home for the summer, the Saint Michael’s campus is still alive with activity. Here at the Institute for the Environment, we have a full team around, including the graduate assistants and the summer stewards. In a fun collaboration between these two groups of student workers, our farm manager Christine Gall, asked to tap into one of our graduate assistant’s unique skill sets. Graduate assistant, George, is a carpenter by trade and has been researching building birdhouses for the natural area in order to encourage nesting of native birds. The summer stewards were then enlisted to train up on power tool safety and help us with our bird house initiative! The team set up their wood shop in the St. Ed’s courtyard and got to work. Over the course of 3 hours, George instructed the stewards on how to safely use the saws and drills to construct the bird houses. They made 12 boxes but will make 24 boxes in total from rough cut cedar. The nest boxes are suitable for over 12 different species. Some species that we hope to welcome are Flying Squirrels, Pileated Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers! Who knew wehad flying squirrels in the Natural Area?!

This was also a great test run for the graduate assistants to practice making these boxes with students. As we create experiences to invite local and St. Michael’s students into our outdoor spaces, we thought bird house building would be a fun experience! Working with the stewards helped George practice teaching students how to build these boxes and safely work with tools! Now the next step will be installing the birdhouses into the Natural Area on Sunday, September 14th at 2pm! Let us know if you’re up for this adventure! 

Check out the blue prints for the boxes and you can even try making your own! Different species have different preferences!